Blanca Ramirez at the Great Wall of China (Photo Courtesy: Operation Smile)

STAFF REPORTS
La Puente – 12-year old Blanca Ramirez is running for charity. She has a goal to become the youngest person ever to run seven marathons on seven continents…before her next birthday.

It sounds more than ambitious, but Ramirez is nearly half way there already. She has run marathons in Africa, Asia and the United States, and is looking forward to running in South America this month, Australia in November, and Europe in early 2015. That just leaves Antarctica, which is scheduled next March.

Ramirez took to running as a family affair, but then she had the idea to globalize her running for charity. She runs to benefit Operation Smile, one of the largest surgical organizations in the world, and also the largest volunteer-based medical charity providing free cleft surgeries. They have provided over 220,000 free surgical procedures to children with cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities. Every three minutes a child is born with one of these conditions, which makes it difficult to eat, speak, hear and breathe properly.

Ramirez’ effort to raise awareness for such a worthwhile cause is definitely something to smile about. You can follow her journey and find out more about Operation Smile by visiting Team Blanca at http://teamblancausa.com/#operationsmile.